Chinese-English Translation · Composition

Crowd Lu: Cafeteria Feliz / 開心餐廳 – English Translation

開心餐廳 contains a lot of very basic vocab and grammar, so is great for lower intermediate students. This is one of my favorite Crowd Lu songs, because it’s just so darned funny – it’s all about a restaurant that he’d like to open. He goes through the song describing what he’d buy and how he’d run it; the cutest thing is that he puts the emphasis on making friends. If this isn’t an antidote to allthosesorrowfullovesongs that permeate the world of Chinese music, I don’t know what is.

希望每道餐點都能夠完美
I sure hope that every dish I make can be perfect[Lit. Hope each [counter] dish also can perfect]

我們在市場交換蘋果
I pick up some apples at the market[Lit. We at the market trade apples][As I understand it, ‘交換蘋果’ basically means ‘I give you an apple, and you give me another one in return’. Obviously, it makes more sense if he trades money for them, so I think that money being involved in the trade is implied.]

可能還需要奶油香蕉 你有沒有
I think I need some butter and bananas too – you have any?[Lit. Maybe also need butter bananas; you have-not-have?][奶油香蕉 is not a long compound noun! 和 (‘and’) is dropped here, probably to make the line scan, but it is acceptable usage.]

謝謝謝你送禮物給我
Thaaaank you for the extras[Lit. Thank thank thank you give present give me][At least in markets in Hong Kong, vendors will typically give you spring onions for free if you spend more than a few dollars… which is what I think this is referring to.]

你喜歡吃甚麼我請客 交個朋友
I’ll treat you to whatever you like to eat, friend![Lit. You like eat what I treat guest, make a friend]

Dalala woo~~~~~~
肚子餓得時候(你想吃什麼)
When you’re hungry, what do you want to eat?

給城市補充溫暖幽默
Adding a little warmth and humor to this town[Lit. Give town add warmth humor][Another example of not having to add ‘和’ for listing out nouns; however, this time, you could also reasonably interpret 溫暖幽默 as ‘warm humor’ (see also 黑色幽默, ‘black humor’)]